My method for handling combat is very similar to @Sparks. I also tend to use it for big skill tests that require a lot of people helping out.
I am more of an overland journey/dungeon-crawl runner, because that's what I run at my table. I can also manage a site-based mystery decently, since I like running CoC. I don't do so well at running social stuff and city based things. Playing monsters and Mother Nature isn't that hard. Playing people, that's hard.
@Sunny Thank you,
You can't evaluate how you spend your time in a vacuum. You have to weigh its pros and cons with the pros and cons of the possible alternatives. I work not because my job is interesting and enjoyable. I work because I don't want to live on the street. I play MUs not because it is the most enjoyable hobby. I play MUs because it is free and doesn't require me to have RL friends living nearby.
The real question is do I enjoy this hobby more than the other hobbies I am able to pursue, and sadly the answer is yes.
Your title already has it. Paranoia is pretty much that game.
If the game leans more towards a MUD atmosphere, is competitive, or has a theme entirely built around keeping secret identities and such like in a Werewolf/Mafia sort of game or BSG with cylons, I would say keep the masque. Otherwise I feel that it gets in the way of collaborative storytelling.
@Admiral How about blood magic, unless you cast it as a ritual?
I have suggested such an idea before. Though, it was more of a list of side characters that people may not feel like playing as their main.
@faraday said in How do you like things GMed?:
It really depends on the players and the setup. If 12 MU players show up to a +event expecting a scene where they get to fight the Big Bad, and it's over in 5 minutes because Joe got a lucky hit and got all the glory? I think you're gonna have 9 or 10 pretty annoyed "I showed up for this?!" MU players. It's a very different environment than a TTRPG.
I agree. That's a failing in current MU* design.
If the players felt like they were on rails, you've failed (even if they actually weren't). If they leave fulfilled because they felt like they influenced the outcome, who cares if the GM had a specific outcome in mind? No one will ever know the difference.
The Quantum Ogre is one of the oldest discussions in the OSR. I lean on the "never" side of illusionism, but, if you truly can pull it off and somehow guarantee that the players are never able to discover the illusionism, have at it. I don't trust myself to not screw it up.
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-how-illusion-can-rob-your-game-of.html?m=1
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-slaying-quantum-ogre.html?m=1
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-ressurecting-quantum-ogre-and-having.html?m=1
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2013/07/on-corpse-of-quantum-ogre.html?m=1
@faraday said in How do you like things GMed?:
I'll second that. If you leave everything up to player decisions and/or dice you can end up with some really random, nonsensical and lame stories. "So you know that big boss you guys have been working towards for the last six months? Yeah, one-shotted in the first round. The end."
I will disagree. I avoid rails as much as possible and try to present the world as naturally(?) as possible rather than theatrically. One of the blogs I linked to in the OSR thread actually has an example of a big bad getting smoked in the first round and the players loving it:
http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/die-strahd-die.html?m=1
http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/gothic-greyhawk-game-35-end-of-strahd.html?m=1
It's these unexpected, "reality is stranger than fiction" moments that I love about OSR oriented systems and GMing. It can lead to boring moments, sure, but it can also lead to amazing stuff that no amount of GM planning could replicate.
Roll20 for the game/combat and Discord to communicate. My group uses this setup every week to run Tomb of Annihilation.
I should clarify. I am looking for how to run these types of adventures within a pre-existing MU* as a storyteller. If I was designing my own MU*, it would have these elements built in already and there is no issue. The problem is trying to tell overland adventure/travel stories inside of a pre-existing system that is more built to handle social RP and fighting. I worry that the players will get bored with just chatting to one another while riding their horses and the only other option is just to throw combat after combat at them.
I have been recently wondering how best to tackle wilderness adventures in a MU* setting. My background is in D&D, particularly old-school D&D, where your character is essentially a needle in an infinitely large board game. The focus is more on resource management, tactics, and exploration, rather than character development and their narrative. I have been trying to go bridge this divide and find a pre-existing system that can help.
I have looked to Mouseguard, which is a Burning Wheel setting, but the mechanics are to tied to the traits system in the Burning Wheel character sheet to be able to lift them and use them in another system. Torchbearer is another BW setting and it has the added difficulty of being dungeon focused and /very/ resource management heavy which doesn't translate well to MUSHes.
Anyone have some suggestions on how to marry the exploration and resource management of OSR D&D and the narrative focus of most MU*a?
@Ganymede I am curious. Then again, I am a weirdo who reads court decisions for fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_Earth
6th century BC is the earliest recorded conceptualization of a spherical Earth. 3rd century BC was confirmation.
@jennkryst said in I know it's an old topic but to this day....:
I'd like to go back a teeny bit to the flat earth and troll the thread by asking... why not both?
That would make for an interesting RPG premise. Instead of Spelljammer, Icejammer.
@thenomain The OP could be using it as a jumping off point. I've done that before - copy/paste a series of questions onto a Word document, then go back and answer them one by one.
Again, I'm playing Devil's Advocate here, and will certainly agree that the thread is kind of weird and pointless.
The thread title does say "WIP" so maybe the plan is for the OP to come back and edit it. Personally I would have just saved it as a Word document until it was ready for posting, but to each their own, I guess.
